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Hancock was UK TV's first major comedy star and the failed
social climber from the wrong end of suburbia still has a
place in our hearts, despite his increasing vintage. The reason?
At its best Hancock's Half Hour is a first rate comedy of
manners and now thanks to the BBC we can experience the oldest
surviving recordings of the show...
Volume
one of Hancock's Half Hour includes the episodes The
Alpine Holiday, Air Steward Hancock, The Last of the Many,
The Lawyer: The Crown v Sidney James, Competitions: How to
Win Money and Influence People, There's an Airfield at the
Bottom of My Garden and a Christmas special: Hancock's
Forty-Three Minutes: The East Cheam Repertory Company: The
Christmas Special.
The
first thing to mention is how good the picture quality is.
Old, suppressed field film recordings from the 1950s often
look tired and scratched and although they'll never compete
with modern recordings these episodes hold their own thanks
to a thorough clean and polish. The sound is generally pretty
clean too although there's a few instances of some unwanted
hiss that could have been filtered out at little extra cost
which is a shame.
The
second thing to mention is that Hancock's Half Hour
matured and developed across its run and while many later
episodes are near faultless slices of TV, some of the earlier
ones don't quite work, perhaps because the central character's
balance of pomposity and pathos had not been properly aligned.
There's also too much emphasis on narrative and not enough
on personality - again something that would be refined by
the time the show peaked.
This
disc is therefore more of a creaky archive curio than universal
entertainment which will clearly limit its appeal. However,
for anyone with an interest in 1950s TV or classic comedy
this early insight into Hancock's Half Hour is essential.
Anthony
Clark
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